1. My STEP Signature Project was designed to improve my skills with guitar and singing. The
material goods portion of STEP budget helped me purchase an electric guitar and amplifier,
and the rest of the budget went to voice and guitar lessons at the Cincinnati School of
Music. I took weekly, hour-long lessons for both voice and guitar throughout the entirety of
my summer and practiced as much as I could when I was on my own.
2. Largely, the way I have viewed myself and how guitar/singing can be learned has changed.
While designing this project, I believed that the only way for me to improve outside of what
I already know was to take lessons and learn from somebody better than me. And of course,
learning from more experiences vocalists and guitarists certainly helped. However, I learned
the real best way to improve is to consistently work at it. Many times, in my life, I have relied
on a weekly lesson, or an hour-long class period, or a shift at work, to bring the change in
me I hoped I would get from the lesson/period/shift. This summer I discovered guitar as a
firmly set passion for myself and realized that I have to put in all the effort, all the time to
improve the skills I want to.
3. At the start of the summer and my STEP project, I went to a locally owned music store.
There, I tried out a few guitars and ultimately bought a butterscotch-blonde Telecaster. But
as I sat in the store testing out the guitars and amps, I could only listen to other customers
playing their guitars infinitely better than me; I was embarrassed to even try to learn. So, I
left the store with a brand-new guitar, amplifier, and feelings of inadequacy.
When I had my first guitar lesson, I learned that my teacher, Sean, was used to teaching children
who had never touched a guitar on purpose in their life – kids who might not even want to. And
because of this, we got along great, I was happy to have a teacher, he was happy to have a student
who could play and cared to. Despite this, I soon found the limitations of his teaching, he was used
to teaching the very basics, and it didn’t seem he understood what to do with someone who already
knew them. This led to many lessons where I was at the helm, steering the lesson down paths of
questions I had, Sean doing his best to explain all of music theory inside an hour. I was learning,
sure, but I wasn’t happy with my progress.
I knew that I couldn’t expect the world out of these lessons. So, I began asking questions that I
hoped having answers to, could guide my at-home practicing. How to play chords in the mix of a
solo, how to arpeggiate different chords, how to play all over the fretboard, etc. All of a sudden, I
had new tools every week to work with, new ways to play this instrument I loved. And I think that
this is what I was meant to learn all along. Having that professional at my side definitely helped, but
these were things I could have learned myself. And now when I sit down with my guitar for
however many hours at a time, I don’t feel embarrassed even if I can’t play well. Now I know it
doesn’t matter how good or bad I am, because I am able to put in the time and make myself better.
4. Throughout my life, I have struggled to find a consistent hobby, much less a passion. I
always felt that when I had my passion, it would devour my life, becoming something I
could devote all my time to. And as I circled through endless 2-3 week cycles of picking up a
new activity, spending some time and money on it, before deciding I wasn’t good enough
before finally dropping it, I became drained. This summer I learned how to turn hobby into
passion into discipline, and now I can put that discipline into making more hobbies become
passions. In a broader sense, I now put more faith into my own abilities to create the life I
want for myself.